[1990-09-01-AJPW-Summer Action Series II] The Fantastics vs Joe Malenko & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was fantastic, no pun intended. There were a couple of blown spots, most notably Kikuchi slipping off the top rope when he was about to slingshot into the ring, but it really doesn't impact much because they recover from it so quickly. All four guys put forth a great effort, and they are doing stuff more high-tech than anything else I've seen in 1990. The flapjack with Kikuchi landing squarely on his head looks absolutely brutal, and the early matwork is better than most stuff you see from All Japan. Quite the incredible spotfest.

[Childs]

I hadn't seen this in a long time, but watching it in context put over how spectacular a spotfest it really was. I always think of the Fantastics as a lesser Rock n' Roll Express on some level. But the R n' R s could not have pulled off this match.

[PeteF3]

Two of the blown spots have tangential things that really jumped out to me. First when Kikuchi splatters to the floor, Tommy Rogers doesn't miss a single beat. Two seconds later he's charging out to the floor to continue to lay the hurt on him--it looks as natural as if it were a planned transition. Second was the entire visible crowd practically leaping out of their seats in shock and horror when Kikuchi can't decide if he wants to take a back body drop or a flapjack and splits the difference by spiking his head into the mat. Seeing Fulton and Rogers work quasi-shoot-style with Joe again was a treat, too. If you're looking for a multilayered Triple Crown or AJPW 6-man, forget it, but this match isn't any less fun.

[soup23]

Great spotfest including hot action and big spots but the Fantastics also reached down and pulled out their vicious streak. I also want to commend Rogers for going right after Kikuchi when he fell to the floor. The flapjack was horrifying. I expected this to be fun going in but was shocked at how great it was.

[Kevin Ridge]

Fantastics bodyslam Kikuchi from the ring to the floor. He got up pretty quickly. Macho Man style elbow drop. Kikuchi gets dropped right on his head with a suplex. He stayed down that time. Fantastics kind of messed up a tag team move and Kikuchi looked like he got his knee wrenched awkwardly. Kikuchi goes for a springboard into the ring and ends up slipping and falling all the way to the floor. Dude is having it rough right now. Crowd still is behind him though. Oh my goodness! He just took a double team flapjack on his head. Stay down please. I was fearing for the guy. He is pretty tough. This was something to watch.

[BackToBionic]

Man, Kikuchi took a beating in the last 1/3rd or so of the match.

[Loss]

Previously on PWO:

 

Joe Malenko & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. The Fantastics 9/1/1990 - Good little 12 minute unknown tag team match from 17 years ago. Joe Malenko is awesome, his mat work is great. Kikuchi takes sick bump after another, including a nasty, nasty double team move. Kikuchi botches a springboard move falling to the outside, poor guy. Worth a watch, but not worth going out of your way to get.

 

 

I wouldn't say unknown, it was pretty highly rated at the time. Great match and Rogers' performance is out of this world, to the point that if he didn't have such stiff competition that year you could convince yourself he was the best wrestler in the world based on this match.

 

 

Yes, you're right about my analyse of it being "unknown". However, when discussing puroresu, this match is never brought up, at least, not in the circles of discussion I've ever been a part of. And yes, Rogers was amazing in this match.

 

 

 

Yes, you're right about my analyse of it being "unknown". However, when discussing puroresu, this match is never brought up, at least, not in the circles of discussion I've ever been a part of.

It's brought up all the time by people who talk about puroresu of that era. It's been talked about since the day it washed up on US shores back in 1990:

Dave Meltzer's 65 Best Matches of 1990

#6 and given ****3/4 at the time.

It's been brought up lots of times since then, both in terms of being a terrific match and also in putting over the underrated greatness of Tommy Rogers as a worker.

There are very few All Japan matches of the 1990-97 period that are unknown or haven't been much talked about. Some tags or six men matches might get less run than some others. But if anything, All Japan of that era is probably the most "over discussed" thing in puroresu. That's from someone who has over disussed the promotion about as much as anyone.


John

 

 

 

 

this match is never brought up, at least, not in the circles of discussion I've ever been a part of.

 

 

 

I can only guess that circle hasn't watched much puroresu from the era, or get around much. John

 

 

You are correct sir. I only started watching puroresu a few years ago. Before then, I didn't even know there was wrestling outside of the United States. IIRC, I found puroresu through Crazy Max, through a tape trader - Tabe.

 

 

 

I wouldn't say unknown, it was pretty highly rated at the time.

Great match and Rogers' performance is out of this world, to the point that if he didn't have such stiff competition that year you could convince yourself he was the best wrestler in the world based on this match.

This is the match that sold me on the Fantastics.


smkelly, I'm glad you're enjoying everything.

 

 

 

Thanks dude, appreciate it.

[Matt D]

Oh hey! I saw this match two weeks ago. Let me put my DVDVR comments here:

 

The bodyslam to the floor spot in this match is really clever. I hate that Kikuchi doesn't sell it. The transition to tag was pretty memorable but it led to a reset instead of a Malenko kills everyone segment which was a little disappointing. I think Malenko was really good at portraying a sense of struggle. Kikuchi falling off the ropes has maybe the best recovery I've ever seen as Rogers just immediately takes over without even a second's hesitation. Good on him. It's so well done you have to wonder if it was planned. The subsequent kickout after the piledriver on the floor is total bullshit though. It's fine to have that not end the match but have Malenko break up the pin if you're going to do that. Fantastics double second rope dropkick is so cool but leads to another bullshit kick out. Rogers is really good at changing direction on the fly. The head plant at 9:57 is scary. Holy jeez. The subsequent kickout is bullshit. Match didn't have enough Malenko. It's pretty much a surreal beating of Kikuchi with the Fantastics kicking out insane offense and Kikuchi kicking out of all of it. I'm not going to say it wasn't fun candy though.

[garretta]

This is actually joined in progress, even though we clearly have all that was broadcast of it.

 

This was the best Fantastics performance I've seen yet, particularly from Rogers. I'm with Childs; in WCW, the Tastics were always promoted as, if not quite a minor-league version of Rock 'n' Roll, as their replacement at best, right down to feuding with the Midnights. They've shone of their own accord on this set, though, and this is the best example yet. Rogers was great, but Fulton was great when he needed to be as well, particularly on that insane flapjack that damn near broke Kikuchi's neck.

 

I read that Matt doesn't like Kikuchi kicking out of the Tastics' offense. I don't really have much of a problem with it; he's going to be a part of Misawa's army going forward, and probably already was, so he needs to be put over as a tough guy who Jumbo and company are practically going to have to murder in cold blood to beat. Besides, he ended up taking the pin in the end, so Rogers and Futon had enough in the tank to beat him. If it had been Malenko, who wasn't involved in the promotion's big money angle, Matt would have a point, and maybe it should have been, but as it is, it's no big deal to me at all.

 

I don't rate clipped matches as a rule, and that's a shame, because this would have knocked Hogan/Hansen out of my Japan top three with no problem. A tremendous performance by all concerned.

[drew wardlaw]

The springboard spot was botched, definitely, but Rogers is right there in the ring waiting for Kikuchi, and it almost comes off like he scares him or something, and like Kikuchi gets intimidated off the ropes and on to the floor. Really interesting comment above about how RnR couldn't have worked this match. It's not really working heel, it's not vicious or stiff, but there's like a certain strength or power they're working with. I don't know, I can't really articulate it, but I agree. They come off as serious competitors in a fight, and less like pro wrestlers maybe?

[JKWebb]

There are some stiff strikes in this match. Kikuchi's bump to the outside (from the bodyslam) looked super painful. Kikuchi sold it well on impact, but then lets it go after that. I wish he would've let it sink in a little bit. Fulton's dive out of the ring onto Kikuchi on the outside floor was sick! There were some really cool spots in the match, and it was definitely entertaining. I wouldn't classify it as a great match, but it's super fun.

 

#456 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-500-451/2/

[ohtani's jacket]

#456. I've never been a Fantastics fan and I don't even really like Kikuchi that much. The guy I like the most in this is Joe Malenko and he was the one that was featured the least. Waay too much going on in this even for a sprint. I realise it was clipped, but I couldn't figure out where the hook was. Maybe I was supposed to care about Kikuchi, but unfortunately I don't. Even if I were a Fantastics fan, I'm not sure I'd really care about what they were doing in Japan based on this. Obviously, they were under time constraints but transplanted Southern tag would have been a lot stronger, IMO, than Japanese spotfest.

[Jetlag]

What makes this fun to watch is who is doing this match. I mean, I am not super familiar with the Fantastics, but I assume they normally did more safe Southern Tags, and that dry shooter type Malenko is there too. So they go ahead and wrestle like a bunch of lunatics popping the crowd with big damn moves and taking bumps to the floor. You'd expect that stuff in a joshi tag but I honestly can't remember the last time I watched a joshi tag that was this out there. Poor Kikuchi. Him getting dropped with his throat right on the guardrail directly after falling from the top rope was so harsh. Guess the other guy didn't like him no selling the body slam to the floor either.

[dawho5]

I have a theory about Kikuchi. He doesn't have neck bones like the rest of us. He's got some kind of super-resilient rubbery substance that always snaps back into place regardless of impact or how it's bent. Anyway, great midcard AJPW spotfest tag. Fantastics and Can Ams always knocked these out of the park.